My new toy!

Yesterday I went to pick up my new toy! I saw an ad on craigslist for a sewing machine, and the person was nice enough to hold it for a week until the weather cleared up. It was a gorgeous day to take a drive  north of the border ~ to Wisconsin, that is. I am now the excited owner of a previously loved Husqvarna Viking Lily 550 sewing machine!

I had to sit and figure out how to use it last night. My old Bernette didn't have electronics, buttons, or anything fancy. It took some reading the manual, testing, and experimenting, but I figured out how to thread, wind the bobbin, and do some stitches. I still need to figure out the programming of multiple stitches. I am amazed at how smoothly it sews. I tried going from 2 to 8 layers of cotton fabrics ~ not a problem for this machine. My son even commented on how quietly it ran. Now to finish the log cabin quilt I started. I don't think I will be hand quilting it ~ I'll be using my new Viking!

On the way back home, had to stop at the Mars Cheese Castle. When I was younger, it was just a store front. It's now an actual castle. Inside is chesee ~ lots and lots of cheese. Bought some butterkase cheese and a loaf of cheese bread from their bakery. Yum!

I'm off to play with my new toy! If anyone has any links for ideas of combining decorative stitches for borders, please let me know. 

~*~ Laura ~*~

Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas! I didn't get cards out in the mail this year, but I still managed to get a snapshot of the kids. My older 3 are 18yrs old, and my youngest is 13.

I remember the years where there were tons of gifts under the tree. Now the gifts are few, and the packages are smaller. Their "toys" increase in price, and the toys get smaller.

I am anxiously waiting to pick up my new toy tomorrow. I used a small bonus and gift money to buy myself something. Stay tuned!

Valdani vs DMC floss

I have this newly finished punch needle Santa listed on Ebay. The listing ends on Friday ~ just in time to get it in the mail for Christmas. 

The one on the left is the item on Ebay. The Santa on the right is the same pattern that I did last year (for myself). It's a pattern  ~Winter Night ~ that my daughter and I created. (she drew, I revised it, and then selected colors, floss, and punched it)  The one on the right I did the background sky with Valdani hand dyed thread. It had shades of soft black and grey. I punched doing an outline around the trees, moon, and Santa.  The piece on the left the sky was punched using DMC floss. I don't like using just plain colors (too flat looking). I blended 2 strands of black, with 1 strand of a brownish grey. It give a different look ~ more of a tweed. But, it's a fun way to get an overdyed look without using overdyed floss. I did the trees the same way (but using lots of different combinations of green/tan), as well as the snow. 

So, if you're doing punch needle, I hope this inspires you to try experimenting!

~*~ Laura ~*~ 

PRiMiTiVe SNoWMaN ANGeL ORNieS ~ for sale

I have 12 snow angel ornies that are for sale * mixed media.  I will sell them individually, so that you can choose how many you would like. They are sewn from cotton batting, have hand sewn beaded eyes and buttons. Each has a hand stitched carrot nose, blushed cheeks, and rusty wire arms and halo. The scarf is an over dyed plaid cotton flannel. The wings are paper glued to card stock, and aged with walnut ink to appear like an antique dictionary. All the wings are on the "snow" page of the dictionary. A clear fish line hanger is attached to each. I will wrap each ornie in a cello bag tied with curling ribbon ~ ready for gift giving!

I have the link to paypal below. If you prefer to contact me first and have me send an invoice, I would be happy to do that. Shipping will be via USPS.

If you need more than I have for sale, please let me know. I do special orders!


$4.25 each, plus flat fee of $2.00 each order shipping

UPDATE ~ I have only 3 left!  I do have an additional 6, but have a dark red/black scarves.

Another update ~ all sold!

Sunday snapshots

My quilt is all pin basted together. I'm planning on hand quilting it, and just got some thread yesterday.

 My youngest is the newest kid in the family to get braces. Just the top so far. The bottom ones to come at a later time.

Just finished listed a whole lot of stuff on Ebay. One of the items is this set of 3 snowmen with stars.

I also listed a set of 3 of these snow angel ornies. I still have the other 3. If you are interested in a set of 3, email me at appleberrycottage.hotmail.com  . They are $4.25 each plus shipping. Made from cotton batting, hand sewn beads for buttons and eyes, hand stitched nose, rusty wire arms and halo, and a "dictionary page" (aged with walnut ink) wings. Each snow angel has been lightly aged with walnut ink. Each has a clear fish line hanger.

Hope you enjoyed my Sunday snap shots!

~*~ Laura ~*~

How to adapt a 1/4" quilting foot

My 1/4" quilting foot arrived. But, it did work on my machine ~ an old Bernette 330. It snapped on, just like any other foot, but my machine kept unthreading while it was on (yep, I was using good thread). After some observing it while it was unthreading, I noticed the needle slightly hit the back of the  foot, but not enough to make a noise or break the needle. Determined to make it work, I used  dremel type tool to make the hole in the foot larger. It now works! How did I ever survive without one of these feet? It's SO much easier to get even seams with this foot. Guess my old Bernette is too old to have too many new feet.

I finished piecing the top, but still need to add borders. The pattern calls for just one border, but I might add another one. 

While using the jelly roll, some of the pieces were cut off pattern. This one shows the brown/ecru print. I used the 1/4" seam, but the fabric print is over 1/2" off from one side to another. There's not enough leftover fabric to use, so I'm just going to have to leave it as is. I think for any patterned fabric I will use my own cut fabric so that I can be cut on grain/pattern in the future.

I'm keeping mental notes of things that would be nice in a new machine. One is the quilting foot. But, my machine gets stuck when going from 2 layers of fabric to 6 (when going over seams). It would be nice to get one of the feet that combines the 1/4" seams with an even feed. I didn't even know they made them, until I wanted to combine the 2 feet that I have. I started looking at machine accys online, and found they make what I wanted.

The next decision will be to machine quilt or hand quilt. I am not an expert at the free motion machine quilting. I love to look of hand quilting, but don't know what pattern to quilt. I think I'll hit the library for some books for ideas.

~*~ Laura ~*~

Log cabin quilt

 I went to my local quilt shop yesterday and chose some Moda fabric for the quilt. I found this Moda jelly roll in shades of blue, brown, and cream. The red fabric is for the center blocks and stars.

The cutting took no time at all, since the 2 1/2 strips were already cut. The hardest part was diving the fabric into dark/lights. Then laying out the 16 squares and using different fabrics in each square. I tried to vary large and small prints, and get different colors in each. Since the jelly roll had all different fabrics, it's going to be a very scrappy looking quilt.

I haven't sewn a quilt in quite a few years. I've always tried to get even edges, but haven't succeeded. So, I just ordered a new 1/4" quilt foot for my sewing machine. For $6, it's worth a try. Now to wait for it to arrive in the mail this week. :)


~*~ Laura ~*~